back when i used to cut a modified mohawk…..

so back in 2009? 2010? i used to send out these mini reflections on passages of the bible that i had read that day. looking back now i must have written almost a year’s worth of those short, Daily Bread-ish devotions.

so as i read through a few today i was quite amazed?? because so many of them held truths that i honestly barely knew or grasped back then, yet somehow past me managed to put those timeless truths into texts.
thank You Jesus, for working through a broken pot like me.. there are days when i am faced with my own selfishness that runs terribly deep, and in those moments i feel like it is all for nought, that all my hopes and joys are swallowed whole by whatever darkness that i find in me.

i am glad that Jesus came for sinners.

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(also – here’s an updated reflection that i sent out tonight, for anyone who’s curious. nothing too different from what you’d find here, nothing spectacular or magical in my writing. yet the truth of the Bible lifts my heart and gives me strength to sing in the darkest of times. through it all, my eyes are on Him 😊)

Hi friends 👋🏻 it has been almost two years since I last sent a reflection out! And i’m not sure where you are at, so if this message comes at a wrong time please forgive me (and let me know!). I just felt led to share this tonight 🙂

“do not boast over those branches. if you do, consider this: you do not support the root, but the root supports you”

– Romans 11:18

Paul’s writing here comes at a time when the Gentiles (that’s us) were receiving the salvation that, previously, had been reserved only for the Jews.

and today’s thought is a short one that branches (ha ha) out into two mini thoughts:1. we don’t support the root

‘the root’ being Jesus, this reminded me of Sunday’s sermon on Acts – a focal point of that book is that the Bible is enough. that with just the Gospel, Paul could stand among the top minds of his time and make a case for Christ.

too often i find myself sifting through apologetics and long winding brain chains about the interpretations of Genesis and evil.. and all that is good (2 Cor 13:5, James 1:3)!! but i can slip into viewing the Bible as a problem, and apologetics as a solution, a plaster of sorts for the Bible’s ‘mistakes’. as if the Bible is falling to bits, or the church is coming undone, or my friends and loved ones are crumbling, and I am the only valiant Christian trying to hold it all together.2. the root supports us

He is the vine, we are the branches, apart from Him we are really nothing.

so i thank God for His grace, that when we are nothing He supports us, and that in His time He makes us beautiful (Ecc 3:11, Phil 1:6).

when we fall into the trap of thinking that we carry the weight of our faith on our own shoulders, that we must force out faith and belief and kindness for all and good outcomes for everyone and love others as Jesus would

unfailingly

patiently

unceasingly

unselfishly

and it just seems too much, know that He supports us. it is never pleasant to feel helpless, but that is our true state before Christ. it certainly was our state when we first met Christ – helpless, and painfully aware of our helplessness, and thus poor in spirit and able to receive Jesus as our Savior. that’s who He is, a Savior who came for the lost, for the sick who desperately need a doctor, for the weary and heavy-laden who need rest.

so if you are lost, or sick, or weary, or just terribly far away

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.”